IV. PARTITIVE NUMERALS; as, Half, a third, a quarter, or fourth part. They are mostly used as substantives.

V. INDEFINITE NUMERALS; as, Many, few, some, all, much, less, several, whole, enough, other, another, only, alone, more, any, none, aught, naught, something, nothing, somewhat, &c

VI. INDEFINITE QUANTITATIVES; as, Great, little, some, all. They are taken, for the most part, from the indefinite numerals, sometimes by different words; as, Great and little, or large and small (comp. many and few); sometimes by a different construction; as, Some water (comp. some men); all the house (comp. all houses).

The indefinite numerals and quantitatives form antitheses; as, Many opposed to few; great to little; large to small; all

to some.

COMPOUND

NUMERALS.

§ 281. In COMPOUND NUMERALS of the ordinal series, it is only the last number that takes the ordinal termination; as, The thirty-third year; the five hundred and twenty-fifth year. We may compare this with our mode of adding a genitive termination to such phrases as the King of England: the King of England's crown. As we consider King of England a sort of compound substantive, and add the mark of the genitive to the end of it, so we consider five hundred and twenty-five a compound adjective, and are satisfied with having the mark of its class put on to the end. When units are combined with tens, they are placed either first, with "and," or last, without "and" (four-and-twenty, or twenty-four); but after a hundred the smaller number is always last; as, A hundred and twenty-four.

$282. CARDINALS take the plural form, though all except one are naturally plural.

"The sun has long been set,

The stars are out by twos and threes,

The little birds are piping yet

Among the bushes and the trees.”

S

WORDSWORTH.

"We are not to stay altogether, but to come to him where he stands by ones, by twos, and by threes."-SHAKSPEARE.

Numerals are usually classed with adjectives, and called numeral adjectives. Like pronouns, they can be divided, according to their signification and form, into substantive, adjective, and adverbial numerals; as, A hundred; ten men; tenthly.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER III.

1. Give the two definitions of an adjective, and the derivation of the term. 2. What does it denote, and why is it called a noun adjective?

3. Mention the several classes of adjectives.

4. What is a proper adjective, and what is a common adjective?

5. What is a numeral adjective, and what is a pronominal adjective?

6. What is a participial adjective, and what a compound adjective?

7. Mention other classifications, with examples.

8. How many degrees of comparison have adjectives that denote variable quantities, and what are they?

9. In terminational comparison, how is the positive expressed? how is the comparative expressed? how is the superlative expressed?

10. What is said of compound comparison? and of diminution of quality? and of the termination ish? and of the number of varieties of quality?

11. Give an instance of irregular comparison, in which different words are employed.

12. Give instances of irregular terminations in comparison.

13. Give instances of defective comparison?

14. What is said of comparison by intensive words?

15. What is said of adjectives not admitting comparison?

NUMERALS.

16. What do numerals express? what kind of words are they? and what is said of their importance?

17. Which are the cardinal numerals? what do they express? and what question do they answer?

18. Which are the ordinal numerals? what do they denote? and what question do they answer?

19. Which are the multiplicative numerals? what do they denote? and what question do they answer?

20. Which are the partitive numerals, and the indefinite numerals? 21. Which are the indefinite quantitatives, and the compound numerals? 22. What is said of plural forms?

CHAPTER IV.

THE ARTICLE.

$283. The ARTICLE is a part of speech serving to reduce a noun substantive from a general to a particular signification. It is a question whether the words AN and THE should be regarded as a distinct part of speech, called the article, or should be classed with adjectives. An is very closely related in origin and power to the word one, a numeral adjective. The, both in its original and its present power, is closely related to the word that, a pronominal adjective. It is convenient to class them as a distinct part of speech.

RELATION

OF THE

ARTICLES то THE PROPOSITION.

§ 284. Still, though they agree severally with one and that, they also differ from them. They can not, either of them, like one and that, form the predicate of a proposition. Nor can either of them stand by itself as the subject of a proposition. The can enter into a proposition only as the sign of definiteness; as, The man is mortal. An or a can enter into a proposition only as a sign of indefiniteness; as, A man is mortal. The article can be only a secondary part of speech.

THE ARTICLE "AN" OR "A."

§ 285. 1. The article AN is the Anglo-Saxon án, the Scotch ane, the Latin unus, and the numeral one. But, though it is the same in derivation as the numeral one, it differs from it in meaning. A man is more indefinite than one man.

an can not be used by itself; the word one can.

The word

Thus we can

2. In the Anglo-Saxon, an was used before consonantal sounds as well as vowel sounds. In the English language then is omitted before consonantal sounds and retained before vowel sounds; as, A man, an eagle, a heart, an hour, a union, The last two words commence with consonantal

a oneness.

sounds, the first with that of y, and the second with that of w, and therefore a is used instead of an. In the word hour the h is silent, and accordingly the n is retained.

3. The words an and a are identical, the change from an to a before a consonantal sound having been made by a euphonic process. It is used when we speak of some single object without defining it. For this reason, in comparison with the, it is called the Indefinite Article. It is definite only with respect to number. It can occur only when conjoined with other words; as, A man, a woman. Like the adjective, it is the same for

all genders and cases.

THE

ARTICLE "THE."

§ 286. 1. The word THE is called the Definite Article, because it specifies or defines the substantive with which it is conjoined; as, The man, the woman. By these expressions some particular man or woman is signified. It is the same for all genders, and cases, and numbers.

2. The definite article the has arisen out of the demonstrative pronoun þæt, or, at least, out of a common root; just as an and a have arisen out of the numeral one. In the Anglo-Saxon there was a form, þe, undeclined, and common to all the cases of all the numbers. As an or a is less definite than one, so is the less definite than that. Were we for the to substitute that, and to say "that man with that long beard," the phrase would more particularly imply real presence, and, indirectly, a sort of contrast with this man with this long beard. An and one, the and that, express different degrees of definiteness. An might with propriety be called the Numeral article, and the the Demonstrative.

COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY.

§ 287. In Greek there is no indefinite, in Latin there is neither an indefinite nor a definite article. In the former language they say avηp Tiç a certain man. In the Latin, the words. filius regis mean equally the son of the king, a son of a king, a son of the king, or the son of a king. In Moso-Gothic and in Old Norse there is an equal absence of the indefinite article.

The origin of articles seems to be uniform. The German ein,

the Danish en, stand to one in the same relation in which an does. The French un, Italian and Spanish uno, are similarly related to unus=one. And as in English the, in German der, in Danish den, come from the demonstrative pronouns, so in the Romanic languages are the French le, the Italian il and lo, and the Spanish el, derived from the Latin demonstrative ille.

In no language, in its oldest stage, is there ever a word giving, in its primary sense, the ideas of a and the. As tongues become modern, some word with a similar sense is used to express them. In the course of time a change of form takes place corresponding to the change of meaning, e. g., one becomes an, and afterward a. Then it is that articles become looked upon as separate parts of speech. No invalidation of this statement is drawn from the Greek language. Although the etymology gives us ỏ, η, Tó, ho, he, to, as the definite article, the syntax informs us that in the oldest stage of the language ỏ (ho)=the, had the power of óvros (howtos)=this.

"There is a the which originated from the Anglo-Saxon by, that, and is different from the the which originated from the Anglo-Saxon pe. The latter is the common article. The former is the the in expressions like all the more, all the better=more by all that, better by all that, and the Latin phrases eo majus, eo melius." For some of these views, see LATHAM on the English Language.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER IV.

1. What is an article?

2. What question has been raised in respect to an and the?

3. To what words are they closely related in origin and power?

4. State the relation of the articles to the proposition.

5. With what words is the article an identical?

6. In what cases is an used in the English language, and in what cases is ✔ used?

7. What is an or a called, and why is it so called?

8. In what respect is this article definite?

9. Why is the called the definite article?

10. From what is the definite article the derived?

11. Mention some languages which are destitute of one or both articles.

12. What is said of the Latin in this connection?

13. What is said of another the?